Winsor Pilates - Good or Bad?

[Sasso1]

I've been hearing some good things about this series of videotapes and while half asleep, I caught part of the informercial last night. It was for $40.

I've been thinking of getting it for my girlfriend who is looking for some sort of exercise to try to lose a little weight, specifically in the area of stomach, hips, buttocks. She's already using SlimFast, but I don't know if that really helps or not. At least it is a meal replacement for when she doesn't have time to make something.

She has been going to the gym and working out seriously. Problem is she's in her last year of her teaching degree and between classes and her part time job, she doesn't always get to go regularly each week so it's usually at least once a week, but no more than 2 or 3 times a week.

She eats fairly well, because we cook our dinners and take the leftovers for lunch. She usually drinks the Slimfast for breakfast or eats something light like fruit or crackers. For lunch, she's eating some soup, bagel, fruit, or something similar.

Dinners for us are usually chicken breast, pork, lots of rice, veggies. She doesn't even drink pop all that much either, maybe one or two cans a week right now. She's not that overweight, ~123 lbs at 5'6". She's just trying mainly to lose that stomach bulge. She is 21 yrs old. I myself just turned 27 and I religiously go to the gym 3 times a week since I was about 16 yrs old. I'm 5'6" 148 lbs right now.

I encourage her to go with me on the days she has time to (between work and classes). Otherwise, she'll go herself. Anyways, I'm just trying to see if there are any tapes that would be helpful and I just heard some good things about pilates in general.


Does anyone have any comments on this or is it all hype. Looking for some serious comments on this.



Thanks,
Ron

 

[Pink Space Biscuit]

Slim fast, bagels, fruit don't make a good diet...

If you really love her go home and burn all the slim fast or donate it to the poor.

If she needs quick on the go things protein shakes are much better choices. There is just way too much sugar in it.

I don't really have an opinion on the tapes, but don't expect them to be some miracle... All she needs is a good diet, if she's already going to the gym with you.

 

[FitFossil]

There's nothing magic about Winsor Pilates, or any kind of pilates. It's just one of the many ways we humans can exercise, and it can certainly be a good part of any exercise program, but it's not the be all and end all like the infomercial probably makes it out to be. It seems that different modes of exercise come in and out of vogue, depending on what "the stars" in Hollywood are doing. Right now pilates is popular because people think it will give them "long, lean muscles" (I just love that phrase - like I can really make my muscles get longer, or that there's any such thing as "fat muscles" vs "lean muscles" )

Sure, buy the videos if she wants 'em - they could be a good way to cross-train, but she should still keep weight training as the core of her program. At 5'6" and only 123, if she has a stomach bulge, then she's carrying excess bodyfat. She'll get the most changes in her body composition (%fat/%muscle) from weight training and diet. Since muscle is denser than fat, she can replace 5 lbs of fat w/ 5 lbs of muscle - she'll still weigh the same, but her measurements will be smaller, and her body more defined. Remind her also that added muscle will increase her metabolism.

And like PSB said, relook at the diet. Just because something is low calorie or "diet" doesn't mean it's good for you. A weight training diet is so different from the traditional weight loss diet, because it's all about getting the most nutritional bang for your buck out of everything you eat, and you have to eat to get the most out of your training. On the other hand, the traditional weight loss diet is all about deprivation and calorie restriction (which is why they typically fail). I think the Body for Life book has good basic diet info that's easy to understand and apply.

Print out the varous "sticky" posts at the top of this board like "Why Women Need Weight Training" for her. Have her join the boards too.

 

[makedah]

Ask your girlfriend to STUDY this website: www.stumptuous.com/weights.html

STUDY IT!

Krista (Web Mistress) has some choice words on Pilates:

Pilates. Dr. Mel Siff, Olympic lifter, author of Supertraining, and strength authority, says it much better than I can. Here is an extensive post that he made to the weights-2 email list on the subject of Pilates. Well worth reading! In summary, he writes, "… I was unable to find any quality research which supports the claims of Pilates or shows its superiority over other well-structured multifaceted varied systems of conditioning. All claims to its excellence are based upon comparison with limited bodybuilding regimes and anecdotal testimonials by clients who have had little exposure to the wide world of modern strength science." Moreover, "in every single case where Pilates is compared with other forms of conditioning, it is measured against typical bodybuilding training and never against scientific strength training that has been used for many years in Russia and Europe to produce the world's greatest athletes in many shapes and sizes, all depending on the specific needs of their sports." I've seen the prices that trainers in my city charge for Pilates sessions. For the price of a single session, you could have a month's gym membership and some nice protein shakes. Update: a reader from Brazil wrote me to say that down there, Pilates is promoted as sort of a modified form of yoga, which is essentially what it is. She also said that sessions were very reasonably priced. So I must make a clear distinction: Pilates as it is promoted in North America, as an overpriced alternative to and substitute for strength training, is crap. Pilates literature here goes on about how strength training builds "short, bulky muscles" while Pilates builds "long, lean muscles", which is physiologically impossible (see Page Two of the crap list for more explanation). However, Pilates as a moderately priced, general fitness protocol for improving flexibility, balance, and body awareness is fine.

...
on another page, she debunks one of the Pilates' myths:

You can change the shape of your muscle depending on how you train it. Pilates, for example, promotes its product (at least in North America) by claiming that it builds "longer, leaner muscles" as opposed to "shorter bulky muscles". When you read bodybuilding magazines they'll tell you that to get a certain muscle shape you need to do a certain exercise. The truth, as usual, is not quite as exciting or complicated. Muscles are attached to bones by connective tissue, which are called tendons. There's more to the anatomy than that, but this simple explanation will work for now. Anyway, people vary individually in terms of where their muscle attaches to the bone, and how long their muscle bellies are. So you could have long attachments and short muscle bellies, attachments which are higher or lower on the bone, etc. These things are genetically determined, and don't change unless you rip the tendon off the bone, then surgically re-attach it. You can make your muscles bigger or smaller, but you can't change their genetically determined shape or length.

Here's a link to Mel Siff on Pilates: http://www.stumptuous.com/siffonpilates.html

 

[FitFossil]

I used to read weights.net, on which Mel Siff made many posts. I remember the one he made on pilates, and it was great.

The best part I remember was when he debunked the part about how it's been said Joseph Pilates based his methods of slow gentle stretching motions from watching animals (lions, tigers, etc) in the wild. Dr. Siff said he must not have watched them very long because cats in general are known for some very ballistic movements - jumping, sprinting, twisting, pouncing, etc. yet they do not have short bulky muscles.

I'll try to dig it up, because my paraphrasing is not all that good

Krista's Stumptuous site is a goldmine!